The Girl who Loved
by DexterFan4249
Summary: Just what happened to Mikael and Lisbeth after The Girl who kicked the hornets nest.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Mikael entered his apartment poured himself a drink and sat down on his sofa with a faint smile on his face. His reunion with Lisbeth had gone quite well, after he had entered her apartment they sat in her large living room and talked, just talked. He doubted if he had heard Salander talk as much. He realised he hadn't had a face to face conversation with her for nearly two and a half years.

He often wondered when he had fallen for her. The truth was that he had spent the last year and a half trying to get Lisbeth acquitted. He hadn't done it for himself like his personal grudge against Wennerstrom. He had risked everything, put his own life in danger for Lisbeth and to stop the people that had taken away her rights and thrown her illegally and without cause into a psychiatric institution. He thought the moment he had fallen for her might be when he entered Lisbeth's apartment for the first time. At the time he had just found out about Lisbeth's history and recalled the rage he felt when he saw the DVD from Bjurman and was furious with the Section and Teleborion.

The last year his goal had been for Lisbeth to be happy, more than anything he wanted to show Lisbeth that life can be good and he wanted to show her this. He had never wanted anything so much in his entire life.

A broad grin appeared on Mikael's face when he thought of her, he stood up and walked into his bedroom and lay there thinking about the last few months. Even the last few years ever since the whole Harriet fucking Vanger business. He shook his head, he would not start thinking about all that right now. Absent-mindedly he brought his hand up and traced the now faint scar along his throat which Martin Vanger had gave him. Probably the only good thing that happened that year was his meeting Lisbeth.

He thought she looked much more beautiful since the last time they met of course it was probably his realisations of his feelings for the girl. She still fascinated him like no other woman he had met. She had always been attractive he seemed to be the only one who could see that beneath the piercings and make up she was a good looking woman. He truly had missed her and whilst he very much wanted to be the person to show her the goodness in life he would accept her friendship at least.

Since Lisbeth was aquitted Mikael had gotten very famous indeed. This story was even larger than Wennerstrom and thus got Blomkvist even more media attention. Of course TV4 had got the scoop first and he welcomed his interview and gave the main point across to the public. "Lisbeth Salander had been falsely diagnosed as a psychopath and had unjustly had her human rights taken away by the Government to silence her from revealing information about a defector Alexander Zalachenko" .

Mikael's book and Millenium's sales had gone through the roof and while he was still nowhere near as well off as Lisbeth with her millions he was now quite wealthy, especially since he still had all that money from Henrik Vanger. Mikael was often recognised in the street and was occasionally bombarded with journalist's. However he had managed to make his way to Lisbeth's apartment without being followed. He still was a little paranoid after all of the espionage over the past month's. This trail of though reminded him of Monica Figurola the attractive and super fit sapo agent. His relationship with her had lasted barely a month after the end of Lisbeth's trial. She had gotten fed up with his lack of seriousness about there relationship. Monica had feelings for him as he had for her but hers were more serious and she thought it would be better to leave now and avoid getting hurt by him. He was a little sad to see her go but he knew it was for the best and since then he had accepted and realised his feelings for Lisbeth.

Mikael recalled his time he had spent sleeping in Salander's apartment, her bed had her scent her sweat, it calmed him. Her smell had calmed him the night after his first brush with death at the hands of Martin Vanger. He had woken up yelling and desperately scratching at his neck for the imaginary noose. She had came in and sat with him which had calmed him nearly instantaneously and he had fallen asleep quickly.

Blomkvist had returned to work at Millennium on a regular basis and now since he had finished his major story he was now on much lower profile and less demanding stories. Erika had resumed her position without a hitch and with the rising subscribers to Millenium they could afford to bring on some of their part timers full time. This made things work smoother and everything less exhausting.

Mikael was quite enjoying his few months off. The few pieces he wrote were very quick and easy and therefore he had a lot of spare time on his hands. He had resolved to spend more time with his daughter Nilla he had rarely seen her in the last couple of years as all of his time had been getting the section story. He had last seen her at Christmas. At this time Nilla had started college but Blomkvist had managed to make time for her and saw her frequently over the the space of a month.

Nilla of course had read the story and was very interested in and seemed to admire Salander. Nilla had managed to get a few details out of him before he clamped up and refused to talk about it any longer. They had been sitting outside a coffee shop a few miles away from the Stockholm University when Nilla broached the subject of Salander.

"You did all this for Lisbeth?" Nilla inquired

"She's my friend" Mikael replied

"I don't understand how you two could have become "friends" I mean you come from completely different worlds"

" We met when I was working on that book about the Vanger Corperation and its history, only a little while after you visited Hedestad"

"But what happened up there that made you hold her in such high regard" Nilla asked casually

He knew what she was doing. This wasn't about Lisbeth she wanted to know what had happened up there. He had never and doubted he ever would tell her what had happened in Hedestad. She and many other people had inquired about where he had got the scar on his throat. He always had shrugged it off ignored the question or changed the subject. With a smile he thought that he may be becoming more like Lisbeth by ignoring questions about his life. Honestly he hadn't thought up a believable lie for his scar on his throat and really never did dwell very much on it.

"We became fairly close whilst in Hedestad and when I found out she was wanted in connection for three homicide's, was a ward of the state and was mentally handicapped I thought that this person was completely different to the girl I had met" Blomkvist finished.

Nilla seemed to realise that she wouldn't be getting any more information out of him after that and changed the subject.

But it was that meeting with his daughter that had caused him to really think about how he had changed in the past three years. His experiences in Hedestad had changed him, everybody had said so Berger, Annika, Christer and Nilla. He was often more withdrawn and since Salander had cut all ties with him he had sought Erika's company quite rarely and even less often in the past year since she had left Millenium, come back just in time for the story of their lives. He had had rare flings with Harriet but that had ended very quickly. He had met Monica but that had lasted barely two months and he hadn't been with Erika since. It reminded him of when he had avoided her for nearly 2 months whilst he was writing the Wennerstom book. He was ashamed to see her because of his role in covering up Martin Vanger.

Lisbeth had saved his life he was forever grateful and was pretty sure they were even now that he had saved her life and been instrumental in the move to get her acquitted. He thought that they shared a bond with there experiences they had saved each others lives and now was certain at least on his side that it was more than friends. He was the only person to know her secrets and she knew all of his.

Mikael Blomkvist was very much in love with Lisbeth Salander it surprised even him but he knew it was true he hadn't felt this way about anybody before not even Berger with whom he thought their relationship was the closest to love as he had ever gotten.

He closed his eyes thinking about Lisbeth as he had done almost non-stop since she had disappeared from his life. She had occupied most of his thoughts for the past two years He was excited to see her again. Feeling hope for the first time in a while he fell fast asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Lisbeth walked into her luxury bathroom, the bath water had turned cold after her meeting with Blomkvist. She sat down on the toilet seat and thought she did a lot of thinking. Her photographic memory as Blomkvist called it, all she does is think.

She needed to be careful as the past had shown it was only Mikael that had ever managed to cause her any kind of emotional pain. Now she needed to work hard not to fall in love with him again, she didn't think that she could take that kind of pain again. Lisbeth still remembered the most stupid and embarrassing moment of her life nearly two years ago outside Mikael's apartment but she owed him she wouldn't have gone free without his help.

She stood up drained the bath and went into the living room and which she had her laptop on the table. She sat down and curled up on the sofa. She had told him everything, absolutely everything she had done since her trial. They had no secrets from each other especially not now since he had found the file on herself and met Holger Palmgren who had told him about Zalachenko.

They had talked for a long time about three hours. She was happy and enjoyed catching up with him. She liked him, he was one of her very few friends and was easily reminded exactly why she fell in love with him. She blinked and reminded herself not to go down such dangerous paths.

True to his word Mikael had shown her how to use the ridiculously expensive coffee machine that she had bought. He had also brought bagels which had been a good idea as she hadn't eaten. He withdrew two roast beef for her and two turkey for himself. This reminder of when they first met brought the familiar lopsided Lisbeth Salander smile to her lips that often appeared whenever Mikael was around.

Surprisingly she and Blomkvist didn't have trouble with conversation, she had talked more with him than she probably had done in her entire life. She had asked him about the Wennerstrom money.

"How did you figure out about the Wennerstrom money?" Lisbeth asked a question that had plagued her for months.

Mikael smiled "It was really just a good guess, the woman who was wanted for the theft of those millions was the same height as you and I also knew that out of anyone you could do this, also I recognised your face from the photo on the news".

"what did you do, did you tell anyone"

"No that's between us, I don't think anyone knows and when I found out I started laughing I think some of my colleagues thought I was crazy"

Lisbeth's expression darkened when he mentioned laughter but then she relaxed at his boyish grin.

So it had been him knowing her so well that had found her out.

Mikael had also told her about his life since they last met when he described his second near death experience Lisbeth actually looked shocked which caused a grin from Blomkvist and a glare from Salander.

"I started work back at Milton Security yesterday" Lisbeth said when Blomkvist asked about Armansky

Mikael knew that her passion was her work and wasn't surprised that she had returned to work despite her being one of the richest women in Sweden.

"Any interesting jobs"

"None"

"Any big scoops for me"

Lisbeth smiled "No"

They sat in pleasant silence for a few moments

"Erika asked me to tell you how grateful she is for the help with her stalker" Mikael remembered

"Oh, That's fine" Lisbeth wasn't used to her clients thanking her "it was mainly Plague who did the work"

"If you don't mind me asking but why did you help her, I mean from what I can remember you didn't like her very much" said Mikael

Lisbeth looked up sharp "Did he know?" She thought

"Well I was bored in the hospital and helping Berger find her stalker, well it was like having my job back".

Mikael nodded "Well she is very grateful as is her husband Greger"

Lisbeth had a sly grin "I always thought how it was weird that he was ok with his wife having and affair"

Mikael laughed "Me two, he always creeped me out"

"How is the secret agent" Lisbeth asked as carefully as possible.

"Over" Mikael smiled and Lisbeth was angry at herself that her traitorous heart skipped a beat.

Breaking off of her trail of thought she realised that she had been lying to herself earlier those feelings had not gone away. Lisbeth sighed deeply and willed herself not to think about him which as always was much harder than she thought.

She made plans to visit Palmgren the next day and wondered what to say to him she saw how shocked he had been when he saw the tape of Bjurman's sadistic rape, but she did not want his pity. Blomkvist had the right idea just ignore the subject, it hadn't come up in their conversation and she didn't think that it would in the future. Palmgren was different and wasn't sure that he would let the matter slide if she said so.

Mikael had been surprised to discover that Lisbeth's half brother was Neidermann although he thought it wasn't that strange if you thought about it. Lisbeth confessed that she probably had more siblings somewhere in Europe. Mikael also asked about her twin sister and he saw fury in her eyes for the first time that night.

"I haven't seen or spoken to my sister in fifteen years and I have not intention of ever doing so"

Mikael changed the subject after that.

Blomkvist asked her about the possibility of furnishing the other rooms she asked him what other rooms did she need. He was puzzled she didn't need anymore rooms to be honest. Then their coversation shifted to the press.

"So has the media swarm attacked you yet" Mikael asked

"Well apart from you nobody yet but I have only been back in the country for a day"

Mikael laughed "well just make sure that they don't find out about this apartment, that could raise some awkward questions".

Lisbeth smiled "I may not have been evading secret agents and rogue spies for the past few months but I was on the run for about six months, I think I can handle the press"

"Noted" Mikael nodded.

"However I gather you have become quite the celebrity"

"Well they are bored now and are waiting for you to resurface, much like me" Mikael shocked himself with that statement and blinked and looked away. A blush had appeared on his cheeks he was blushing, he hadn't blushed for a woman in twenty-five years.

Lisbeth didn't quite know what to make of that last comment their three hours of conversation had ended soon after that. Lisbeth could not recall ever having a conversation for such a long time that she was a willing participant. Most of the time it was just people talking at her. Though she may regret her decision to let Blomkvist back into her life so long as she kept her feelings in check then he couldn't hurt her. He had earned the right to be her friend, they trusted each other implicitly and above all he was a good man one of the very few she had met. Lisbeth sighed again, stood up and walked into her bedroom and took of her clothes and slept making a promise to herself to stop thinking about Mikael.

Lisbeth woke next morning and made herself a coffee and sat at her make shift desk, the coffee table in the living room. She looked at the file next to her laptop her latest assignment for Armansky she spent a couple of hours working on it before she stood up went into the shower then ate breakfast. She called Palmgren to arrange a meeting time. She took the tunnelbana and managed to get to the nursing home without incident. A few people recognised her but stayed well clear. She wondered what percentage of people still thought she was a deranged psychotic killer and which knew the truth. It didn't matter to her as long as people stayed out of her way. Mikael's book had been very successful but of course not everybody knew the section story and others just didn't believe it.

Lisbeth arrived at the nursing home and was recognised immediately and allowed to see Palmgren. Luckily the staff seemed to know that Lisbeth was not a murderer evidently Palmgren must have made sure they were informed with the result of the trial. Palmgren was sitting up in a chair next to the window looking out. She sat down on the table opposite him, the table between them contained a chess board and pieces. Palmgren looked even better than when he had appeared at her trial she was glad that her money was being put to good use.

"So good to see you Lisbeth" Palmgren began "It's been a long time"

"I went travelling for a few month's"

"I can understand that" Holger nodded

"You look better"

"Yes I'm improving quite a lot and I believe I have you to thank for it"

Lisbeth's eyes widened she had never told him that she paid for his treatment

"Mikael told me" Lisbeth saw red, he had lied to her "you put most of the money you earned from Armansky into an account for me, Thank you Lisbeth"

"No problem" Lisbeth forced a smile, He hadn't told him after all

"So what account should I send it to when I start paying it back"

Lisbeth gave him an angry look "As far as I'm concerned the money's your's you don't need to pay it back" Lisbeth thought for a moment to think up an excuse for where all the money had come from.

"But you must be almost broke with the holidays and rent" Palmgren didn't understand

"When I was working with Blomkvist we worked for Henrik Vanger and he paid Blomkvist a ridiculously large amount of money and Blomkvist split it with me fifty fifty".

That lie seemed to appease Palmgren.

"He asked about you" Palmgren said "He's been calling every week asking for you"

Lisbeth was actually surprised by Palmgren's revelation.

"He cares about you"

"He is my friend" Lisbeth answered

"I'm proud of you Lisbeth, proud of the woman you become" Palmgren smiled.

Lisbeth left Palmgren soon after, he was exhausted by their conversation which had lasted an hour and he returned to his room to lie down.

Lisbeth returned home on the tunnelbana and had her first incident with a reporter who happened to be Tony Scala the reporter who had published those baseless articles about Miriam Wu. The incident happened just outside the tunnelbana. They must have gotten a tip off that she used that particular station.

"Froken Salander, Tony Scala how does it feel to be a free woman"

Lisbeth smiled her crooked smile and does what she does best and ignored him. They followed her for a couple of minutes before they must have gotten tired of her lack of responses for her questions and backed off a little. She took advantage of the space and ran, she was small and therefore quick and by navigating the alleyways and side streets managed to evade the journalists. She circled back around to her apartment at Fitzgarten and entered undetected.

She sat down on her kitchen counter panting, she needed to excersise more. She made herself coffee and checked her emails. There were emails from Plague and she realised that she hadn't paid them back. She opened up Hacker Republic and told both Plague and Trinity that she was sending them money for their help in stopping Teleborian, they thanked her and Lisbeth left Hacker republic as they were having a debate wondering how she made that much money.

Lisbeth spent the rest of the day working on the assignment for Armansky it was fairly simple the man she was investigating had no dark secrets she could find. She backed up her work and printed it off and placed her report in the file. She went to have a bath and lay in the tub for about an hour thinking about Mikael. She got out dried herself and went to bed.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Mikael and Lisbeth met up with each other three times that week, he visited her apartment again the next day and a couple of days after they met up again for coffee when Mikael had his lunch break.

They talked just like when they lived together for two months at the cottage in Hedeby and then a further month in Sandhalm. He was the only person she had met that she could stand to spend long periods of time with. Usually people's company bored her beyond despair but Blomkvist was different, it had annoyed her when she had first realised but now she accepted that she had fallen in love with him, the only person she had ever been in love with. She didn't want to be in love with him the feelings that he provoked were painful and quite confusing for her.

Lunch with Mikael had was enjoyable they had gotten odd looks from various people in the cafe and particularly from the waitress who must have recognised Lisbeth and recoiled when Lisbeth glared at her for staring. Michael barely suppressed a grin and was reminded of what made Lisbeth special. Blomkvist supposed that they must have looked odd together. Two years ago when they had spent a lot of their time together they had gotten many odd looks but now since more people recognised Blomkvist and especially Lisbeth the odd looks had increased to near intolerable standards. Now even more people gave her looks of hostility as they didn't believe her story although Lisbeth wasn't sure if she preferred the hostile looks too the looks of pity.

"How's Millenium" Lisbeth had asked when they had got their drink and food served.

"Fine, we haven't had many big stories recently, I suppose 'The Section' story has put Millennium on too high of a pedestal now. Still, we're doing very well, lots of new subscribers." Mikael finished

" I went to see Palmgren" Lisbeth told him

"Really, good I've been calling him quite often in the past few months to see if he had heard from you, he talked on the phone about his health but I haven't seen him since the trial" Mikael paused "How's he doing"

"From what I could see he looked good, his speech had improved and I asked the doctor on the way out and he seems to be doing better than they imagined" Lisbeth sighed and looked down.

"What" Mikael sensed something

"The money from Wennerstrom, I used some of it to pay for Palmgren's care"

"And"

"Nobody else knows about the money so I told him that you had split the money from Henrik Vanger with me, so if he ever asks.."

"No problem Lisbeth" Blomkvist smiled "I remember when I tried to convince you to take the money, I couldn't understand it when you didn't even ask how much money I was offering, down I realise you had got a much better deal"

"How much was it in the end" Lisbeth asked wondering now how much Henrik had paid him for finding Harriet.

"Three hundred thousand kronor each so when you didn't take the money I had got the money I lost from Wennerstom back"

They sat in silence for a while, Lisbeth looked around at the street a couple of people from a table near her was looking at her with recognition, Lisbeth growled she did not like this kind of attention.

"Just give it time, they will forget about you soon enough" Lisbeth nodded

They made plans for Friday and parted ways, they gave each other a hug. Lisbeth was surprised how nice it felt.

Lisbeth walked around to the where her motorcycle was parked around the corner. She hadn't taken her motorcycle out on a long ride for ages. She had driven it for the first time in eight months the short distance to the coffee shop to see Mikael. She sat on her bike put her helmet on and drove off to Milton Security.

It was the first time she had been to Milton Security or seen Dragen Armansky for nearly a year. Dragen had left her an email with details of her assignment so as she didn't need to go in. She walked into the building and then over to the elevator up to the investigation's department floor. The ground floor lobby hadn't changed much, the layout of sofa and coffee table had changed but other than that and couldn't find any differences. Lisbeth travelled up to her desired floor alone, lunch was over and everybody was now back at work. She exited the elevator and walked the fairly short distance to her office. To get to her office she had to walk past the majority of the workforce. Many people gave her surprised looks evidently they must not have expected her to return to work. She had been told explicitly by Armansky that her office had remain vacant and she was welcome to it.

She entered her office and sat down placing her back on the desk. Lisbeth checked the drawers of her desk and took out the contents and placed them on the desk. Two notebooks, a box of pens and pencils. She withdrew a pen from the box and opened her bag and took out her report, placed her bag on the floor and started reading through her report one last time. After five minutes she was convinced that it was up to her usual standard. She placed all of the papers back into the file, stood up with the report under her arm and shut the door of her office on the way out. Armansky wasn't in his office, Salander assumed he was on a business call to one of Milton's important clients. His office was open though she entered it put her report on the desk and left the building.

Mikael walked back to the Millennium offices after his meeting with Salander. He had thought it had gone well and was looking forward to Friday. Everybody was busy working and nobody looked at him. While he was at lunch, Berger had tried to call him so he went straight to her office. Erika had recovered very quickly from her time being stalked. A couple of months ago they had gone out for a meal together and she had told him all about her experiences at SDP and explained Salander's involvement. Blomkvist and Berger's relationship had never quite gotten back to the way it had been before he had gone to Hedeby for the year. They had slept together on occasion but a lot less than before and not for a few months. Blomkvist was fine with that though Erika would always be his friend but he was in love with Lisbeth now and he didn't feel like being with Erika whilst he felt that way. He also knew that Erika would back off if he told her his feelings.

"Erika" Mikael greeted

"Hi Micke, how was lunch with Lisbeth"

"Good, we're seeing each other again on Friday"

Erika nodded approvingly "I wanted to ask you wether you had that article done for this month's edition"

"Yeah it's in my office I'll get it" Mikael left the room. She knew, Erika knew, was he that transparent, she had given him a knowing look when he told her about seeing Lisbeth again.

Shaking his head smiling faintly he headed off to his office.

Mikael finished work and headed back to his apartment, Lisbeth Salander had completely baffled him when they first met she was the most confusing, irritating woman he had met he hadn't expected to fall in love with her. Mikael half-heartedly tried to continue to work on some of his articles but he wasn't in the right frame of mind and was distracted easily. He went to bed and fell asleep.

Lisbeth Salander stared around her apartment looking anxious for possibly the first time in her life. The day before a Thursday she had gone to visit Plague, she had never actually found out what he had found out about Teleborian. She didn't need to visit Plague she could have just asked him to download Teleborian's hard drive onto her PC, however she felt like travelling and she actually wanted to see Plague and thank him in person for his help in her aquittal. Perhaps Lisbeth was changing she had never before sought out contact with another person before without a reason the usual being sex or work.

Plague had greeted her warmly, they didn't hug or even touch but he nodded and smiled when he saw her and she gave a rare lopsided smile back. Lisbeth didn't go into detail about her wherabouts over the past months but she thanked him for his help and Plague was more than willing to allow her access to one of his computers to look over the dirt on Teleborian.

Lisbeth didn't bat an eyelid when she found the hundreds of photos of children in varying states of dress. Teleborian had never touched her but to some extent that was even worse. She was held for months of continued restraint. He had control of every aspect of her life, when she had ate most of the time the food had been drugged so she quickly refused the food, she would have starved to death if some of the nurses or other doctors hadn't slipped her food when Teleborian wasn't on shift. Her face showed no emotion of these thoughts and anyway Plague was engrossed whatever work he was doing, she got up and left without saying goodbye.

Her brief investigation into Teleborian was not the reason for her sudden anxiousness. Lisbeth Salander was going to a bar with Blomkvist.

"What happened" she thought "It was no use blaming Mikael it was her who started it exactly what she had wanted not to do"

Mikael had called on Thursday asking where they should go and Lisbeth had replied to a club in Sode it was practically the only club in Stockholm she could get into nobody beleived her when she told them she was 27. The bouncers at other clubs still didn't know who she it or her story which she did not mind, in fact she prefered it but still at moments like this it was still irritating.

She presumed that she had suggested it because she had wanted to go out drinking, she hadn't done that in a while and felt like she had deserved it. Also she had often wondered what Blomkvist would be like drunk, Lisbeth hadn't expected Blomkvist to be for this idea she couldn't really imagine Mikael at a Club. She was anxious because if they both got drunk she didn't like to think of what might happen between them. She would probably try to seduce him again like she had the first time they had sex. Lisbeth worried that in a drunken state she might reveal her feelings for him and that scared her, her worst fear was that he would laugh at her. There was a knock at the door of her apartment, Mikael.

Blomkvist was going to a club with Lisbeth, he was quite interested in where they would be going. He wondered what types of places Lisbeth spent her time, they couldn't all be professional, neat, clean looking places like the offices of Milton Security. Lisbeth did not fit in with Milton Security he had asked but had never found out how she had managed to work there. How did a girl with her appearance get a job at Milton. Mikael put on his leather jacket, he had taken to waring it more often in the past year, he thought the often dark colours he wore symbolised his mood or perhaps it had reminded him of Lisbeth either way he assumed that his clothing would be typical of where they would be going. Mikael knocked on Lisbeth's apartment door.

She looked beautiful in his opinion she was dressed normally for her, not completely over the top like her trial but normal, for her at least. Only a few piercings and more eye-shadow than the usual woman, she wore an odd expression that Blomkvist could not decipher. But that was Lisbeth unreadable and silent.

"Shall we go then" asked Blomkvist, Lisbeth nodded.

The club wasn't very far away from Lisbeth's apartment and since Blomkvist didn't own a car they walked it. They were both silent Blomkvist had nothing really to say to her, he had said almost everything to her on the day they reconciled and he knew how Lisbeth thought small-talk was pointless and a waste of her time. The club was situated in a fairly dark, unpleasant looking street faint looking neon lights above the entrance completed the shady ensemble. The bouncer recognised Lisbeth and let them both in. Mikael was right he did blend in with everyone, it didn't seem like the type of place in which he wanted to be recognised. He was relatively famous but nowhere near the level of Lisbeth.

Lisbeth had an urge to laugh at Mikael's reaction to the club, a smirk formed on her lips but Mikael was looking the opposite direction. They approached the bar and they got drinks, the night progressed slowly and Mikael was interested to see Lisbeth's reaction to a club scene. They both recieved curious looks, not because they were recognised but because a middle-aged man and a barely legal looking girl often got unwanted attention.

Tonight was two weeks exactly from when Mikael reached out to Lisbeth and they had talked. Mikael was paceing himself, he wanted to see what Lisbeth Salander was like drunk. Always so calm, quiet and in control, what could she be like when she loses control.

They conversed with each other as the night went on about a whole variety of subjects, they were catching up from the missed time. Mikael knew by now when she wasn't interested in a subject when she only gave him one word answers. Other subject's managed a much better response from her. Her work at Milton security for one, she started to tell him about how she first got employed at Milton Security. Mikael managed not to smile at the thought of Lisbeth Salander making the coffee and sorting mail for an office such as Milton.

Their night got a little more exciting as it went on with them both getting more drunk, they began laughing together at small things and very quickly after that Blomkvist paid the tab and they both began to stagger back to Lisbeth's apartment. The solitary light from the moon illuminated Lisbeth's face and made her even paler, he noticed only now how even though she had been living in gibraltar for a few months her skin colour had not changed. They progressed through the dirty streets back to the beautiful clean Fiskagarten where Lisbeth's apartment was. Somehow they got up the stairs to her apartment door.

Lisbeth knew it would happen, sometime during that evening they seemed to wordlessly accept that they would sleep together at the end of the night. All the reasons Lisbeth had thought of had gone from her mind. She wanted this and so did he.

As soon as they entered the darkened apartment Mikael pressed his lips to Lisbeth's, she responded by wrapping her arms around his neck and he took the hint and lifted her up, legs wrapping around him. Blomkvist stumbled and walked into a few things but eventually found Lisbeth's bedroom. They had both slept on this bed but never together.

Mikael dropped her onto the bed and broke the kiss. Her eyes opened and found him staring at her. Mikael undressed her savouring every moment, he was not sure if they would be doing this again. Lisbeth was getting frustrated, with a final growl she pulled him onto the bed, rolled him over and pulled off his clothes faster than Blomkvist could believe. They had sex a few times that night each of them waking to other up to begin.

When Lisbeth fell asleep and they were both spent Mikael lay awake watching her curled up against him. Even though it was dark in the room he could still clearly see her tattoos. He unconsciously stroked her dragon tattoo and counted her tattoos again. He had always liked doing this and did so whenever they had slept together. He was surprised by her new breasts, he really hadn't minded her chest before but he supposed it was her choice to make and to him they were perfect and not too big. Mikael fell asleep wrapped around Lisbeth and feeling happy for the first time in a year.


End file.
